Thread by @querythepast

Well, la Journée internationale des Patriotes (Quebec’s Patriots’ Day) is almost upon us and, as in years prior, there seems to be little consensus as to its significance, as to what it means. #cdnhist #qcpoli 1/8

Historians and political commentators have described the Lower Canadian Patriots who rebelled in 1837 (and for several days in 1838) as deeply egalitarian – but also as a predominantly middle-class group seeking to extend its influence and jealously guarding its privileges. 2/8

Sometimes democrats, sometimes decolonizers, the Patriots have been made into French-Canadian nationalists, but also into representatives of a Canada-wide push for colonial autonomy (regardless of ethnicity), and into Americanizers and annexationists. 3/8

This year, many proponents #pl21 (Quebec's proposed bill on public secularism) have evoked the Catholic Church’s hostility, as an institution, to the Rebellions. In short, with the Patriots, there has been something for everyone. 4/8

That, more than a possible consensus, explains why they have become central to QC’s historical narrative. Subsequent events, too, (the Patriot War, Durham’s Report, the Union of 1840, economic restructuring, responsible government) have been made to speak to different ends. 5/8

The point is partly that history offers a bit of everything and we thus have to be wary of the politicization of the past. But this is also an opportunity to study more closely the 1830s, which seem so difficult to grasp that we project onto them all of our ideals and fears. 6/8

To address that, I notably recommend to my fellow #twitterstorians:

A. Greer, Patriots and the People (1993)
L.-G. Harvey, Printemps de l’Amérique français (2005)
M. Ducharme, Le concept de liberté au Canada (2010)
M. Dagenais / J. Mauduit, Revolutions across Borders (2019) 7/8

In a smaller way, I’ve discussed the Patriots in the International History Review and will again on the @FcLpodcast. What works would you recommend, #twitterstorians, to help others make sense of the Rebellions? 8/8

May be of interest to @earlycanada, @AndreaEidinger, etc.